For people into Friendfeed, the appeal is the ability to have a pretty complete view of your personal digital landscape – who’s commenting on your digital activity, as well as the digital lives of other people you follow.
There are already lots of ways to monitor Friendfeed – the Web site, a desktop application or via e-mail, but now Friendfeed has unveiled updates via instant messaging. It strikes me as overkill, a feature rolled out because it was technically possible as opposed to demanded.
FriendFeed ultimately is a communication platform, so adding IM was inevitable. But please kill me now. Just the thought of getting a ping every 30 seconds when anyone I follow on FriendFeed decides to Twitter, blog, add a photo to Flickr, share something on Google Reader, or any of the dozens of other actions across the Web FriendFeed monitors is overwhelming. I need less noise in my life, not more noise.
Now, I could be wrong because I’m not a die-hard Friendfeed user. But I’m increasingly convinced we’re being digitally bombarded to the point where it’s getting too much for all but a few completed wired people.
One thing that has kept Twitter and other micro-blogging services so useable and manageable is its simplicity. There aren’t a lot of frills. Sure, you can use Twitter on the mobile Web or use iPhone apps but if you want to ignore Twitter, you can.
Do You Need Friendfeed IM?
For people into Friendfeed, the appeal is the ability to have a pretty complete view of your personal digital landscape – who’s commenting on your digital activity, as well as the digital lives of other people you follow.
There are already lots of ways to monitor Friendfeed – the Web site, a desktop application or via e-mail, but now Friendfeed has unveiled updates via instant messaging. It strikes me as overkill, a feature rolled out because it was technically possible as opposed to demanded.
Here’s a great synopsis by TechCrunch’s Erik Schonfeld:
Now, I could be wrong because I’m not a die-hard Friendfeed user. But I’m increasingly convinced we’re being digitally bombarded to the point where it’s getting too much for all but a few completed wired people.
One thing that has kept Twitter and other micro-blogging services so useable and manageable is its simplicity. There aren’t a lot of frills. Sure, you can use Twitter on the mobile Web or use iPhone apps but if you want to ignore Twitter, you can.
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